More Like This

Preview

This chapter examines the Bureau and its activities after 9/11. It considers the shape of the terrorist threat, as well as how the FBI's broad reorganization efforts can be informed by lessons from the COINTELPRO era. A central lesson of COINTELPRO is that, given a mandate to monitor and defuse dissident activity, intelligence organizations will do just that, even at the expense of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. In the past, presidents and attorneys general have been complicit in such activities. Indeed, it is only the presence of external monitoring—whether by congressional oversight...

This chapter examines the Bureau and its activities after 9/11. It considers the shape of the terrorist threat, as well as how the FBI's broad reorganization efforts can be informed by lessons from the COINTELPRO era. A central lesson of COINTELPRO is that, given a mandate to monitor and defuse dissident activity, intelligence organizations will do just that, even at the expense of constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. In the past, presidents and attorneys general have been complicit in such activities. Indeed, it is only the presence of external monitoring—whether by congressional oversight or public outcry—that has kept the Bureau in check. Once again, our ability to maintain our freedom requires vigilance, both by the FBI and the American public.